Symeon Brown,
Reporter

As lead singer of the multi-million selling band Scissor Sisters, Jake Shears found fame – along with critical success – performing a heady mix of glam-rock and queer transgression. But in his new autobiography ‘Boys Keep Swinging’, the focus is on the more challenging parts of his life: his difficult childhood in suburban Seattle, coming…

Hundreds of Jamaicans were among those to arrive on the Empire Windrush 70 years ago. But while the political controversy over the Windrush generation has raged, the Caribbean island is at the heart of another storm about the way cultural exports are treated by Britain and the rest of the world. From music to food,…

Many of the first post war migrants to arrive in Britain were ex serviceman who fought in the Second World War. But as the Windrush scandal upsets one generation born under British rule – it may be encouraging apathy amongst their grand children.

At the same time as the Windrush generation’s disenfranchisement, Britain is undertaking a nursing recruitment drive in the Caribbean to help alleviate the one in 10 nurses who left the NHS in England and Wales – but at what cost?

A new raft of measures has been announced by the government, which it claims will allow people from the Windrush generation to get their UK citizenship at no extra cost. But what about the toll the scandal has already taken on the families affected, like Trevor and Desmond Johnson, who arrived as boys from Jamaica…

Supporters of the Windrush families have held a solidarity rally at Windrush Square in Brixton, south London – a place the organisers say was designed to celebrate “the remarkable contribution of African and Caribbean men and women to this country”.

Deep beneath the streets of London an extraordinary art installation is marking the ancient art of mourning. American artist Taryn Simon has assembled professional mourners from around the world, casting light on how western rituals have become stage managed and exclude visceral expressions of grief. The experience is the polar opposite of how the English-speaking…

What of the people caught up in the violent crime which is corroding some communities? We met up with members of Football Beyond Borders in Brixton, a charity which uses football to support disadvantaged young people in south London – and asked them what they think of the Government’s plan and the recent focus on…

Last night there were two more deaths on the streets of the capital. That took the total number of killings this year to fifty five. Almost half of the victims were aged under twenty five. The latest to die was 18-year-old Israel Ogunsola. He was stabbed at 8pm last night. He had asked for help from…

A 16-year-old boy who died after he was shot in the face has been named locally as Amaan Shakoor – the youngest murder victim in London this year. The teenager was attacked in east London on Monday night – just minutes after a 17-year-old girl was shot and killed a few miles away while she…

The statistics are grim – two teenagers shot and a third teenager stabbed in London in the space of an hour. The reality seems worse – with the local MP stating that although there’s no single cause there has been a big spike in gun and knife crime across the capital and local residents are…

Britain’s top police officer has blamed social media for helping to fuel knife crime, especially among teenagers. 13 people were knifed to death in London in just two weeks this month – with fatal stabbings across England and Wales at their highest level for seven years. The Met commissoner Cressida Dick said drug dealing and…

The Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has said the party needs to “do better” in the fight against anti-Semitism – as 49 Labour MPs and peers signed an open letter urging him to suspend a leading Momentum supporter from the ruling NEC. Christine Shawcroft – who was forced to resign after opposing the suspension of a…

Footage of the horrifying moment when a fireball ripped through a London Underground carriage last September has been shown to jurors at the Old Bailey. Iraqi asylum seeker Ahmed Hassan is accused of leaving an improvised bomb on a train which then partially exploded at a station in the west of the capital. Today his…